


The Tavern at the End of the Lane

by dragonofeternal



Category: Dragon Kishi-dan | Dragon Knights
Genre: M/M, Trick or Treat: Trick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-26
Updated: 2018-10-26
Packaged: 2019-08-08 03:22:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16421432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonofeternal/pseuds/dragonofeternal
Summary: Kai-stern and Tetheus go undercover in an attempt to stop someone from smuggling demonic weapons into the Dragon Kingdom.





	The Tavern at the End of the Lane

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Puimoo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Puimoo/gifts).



The cold autumn breeze cut through Kaistern's cloak as he made his way down the winding, hilly streets of Glaciosa. It was a good bit later in the year than he cared to travel this far north, and the thin, colorful coat and rakish shirt he was wearing to disguise himself did little to protect him from the cold. It wouldn't be long until winter came to the province, encasing it in ice and snow, but Kaistern hoped that his business would be done here long before that happened. Then he could return to Draqueen, or at least be dispatched somewhere warmer for work. 

As it was though, he could not return until he'd properly investigated the rumors he'd picked up while traveling through the more southerly provinces of the Dragon Kingdom- someone, or perhaps multiple someones, had smuggled a large number of magical weapons out of Kainaldia, and was planning to pawn them off on the black market. Just thinking about it made the cold a little sharper, and he shuddered to think what else they might be planning. Was it a test, to see if they could slip past the Dragon Clan's prying eyes with this to plan further atrocities? Did they have a buyer, demon or otherwise, looking to mount an assault on the Dragon Lord or his lands? 

Whatever the aims, Kaistern would make sure they failed. 

As the roads wound their way down into the gutter of the city, the cobblestone pavers grew further apart, the mortar eroded away by rain and a lack of general upkeep in the area. The storefronts and homes leaned together, seeming to support each other like drunken friends on their way back from a night at the pub. The door to one burst open, and a pack of carousers burst out, singing a filthy drinking song and laughing. Kaistern lingered as they passed, staring into the brightly lit window as though he'd be able to leech warmth from just its light. Sure, he was heading to a different bar to look into this weapon smuggling thing, but a quick drink couldn't hurt...

In the reflection of the street in the pub's glass, Kaistern saw a dark figure staring at him from across the street. He sighed and turned from the window to meet Tetheus' steely gaze. There were only one real downside to working with Tetheus, and that was that you had to stay on task the whole time. Kaistern smiled and shook his head as if to say, no, don't worry, he wasn't about to go goof off. Tetheus nodded, waiting until Kaistern was moving again to resume following him. Kaistern had no idea how he managed to fade so effectively into the crowds with how distinctive his whole tall, dark, and handsome look was, but he was grateful for it tonight. Even if it meant he had a babysitter. Tetheus was a better partner for infiltration and extermination than Alfeegi, at least. Alfeegi would be way too neurotic to deal with slumming it in a place like this, and Tetheus was far more reliable for if things turned violent. And given the whole premise of what was being smuggled… yeah, that seemed likely.

They finally reached the bottom of the hill, and Kaistern saw Tetheus branch off down an alleyway out of the corner of his eye to scope out the perimeter. He took a deep breath, taking in their most likely mark. Unlike the row he'd just walked down, this tavern stood alone, its sign creaking in the cold autumn wind. _Escallo's,_ read the chipped paint. Kaistern took a deep breath, adjusting his coat and striding up with not a moment more of hesitation. At the very least, the inside would be warm. 

The tavern stank like stale wine and faintly spoiled meat, and the few other patrons looked up from their dice game when Kaistern entered. He did his best approximation of a mildly intoxicated stumble, waving at them and making his way to the bar. The bartender smiled at him, affectionate wrinkles cracking around her eyes. Kaistern met her smile with an even wider one. 

"I'll have a glass of your strongest and cheapest," he said with a laugh, plinking a couple coins down on the bar. 

"Which one?" The bartender asked with a laugh, already turning to grab a glass. 

Kaistern leaned on the bar and laughed. "Whatever's in the middle of those two things, I suppose. I don't need to get top-shelf drunk, just sloppy drunk." 

"All right then, dear," said the bartender, pulling a bottle down and filling his glass before pocketing the coin. "Washing away a heartache?"

Kaistern took a sip of the drink and was both pleased and disappointed to find it tasted like flowery, watery piss. It'd take all night to get properly drunk on this. "Not exactly… It's a long story." 

"Well, isn't that what the bar is for? Tall tales and long stories?" 

Kaistern laughed a little. "I suppose, I suppose. Let me get a few more of these in me before I go and spill my guts, what do you say?" 

The bartender smiled, busying herself with polishing some glasses. "I say, if you've got the coin, you can have all the bottom-shelf liquor you want, sweetheart." 

"I'll drink to that!" He tipped his glass to the bartender and then knocked it back, throwing down a few more coins so she'd refill his cup. Kaistern sipped that one more slowly, taking some time to take in the establishment. The men playing dice had already lost interest in them, and after a bit of study, Kaistern figured they probably weren't actually demonic smugglers in disguise. They had the look of people who spent most of their time sitting in the very chairs they sat in right now, the kind where it's a wonder they haven't grown roots. The bartender was sharper eyed, keeping an eye on every slight movement. Whenever she caught him looking, she smiled kindly. Potentially politeness, potentially danger- only time would tell. As it stood, she was the most likely to secretly be a smuggler or a demon. Behind the bar, he could see the corner of a trapdoor, probably leading down to a wine cellar but potentially to a secret hideout or weapon cache. He could feel his anticipation mounting. Sure, his work was dangerous, but this? This sort of adventure was well worth it. His glass was empty again, and he flagged the bartender over for another refill.

"You feeling a bit more talkative, hun?" she asked as she topped him off. 

Kaistern sighed heavily and offered her a sheepish smile. "I suppose I'm just out of sorts because well… Lost my job. Not much hope of getting back either, and now I'm just looking to forget it all for the night." 

"And so you're blowing the last of your coin on cheap drinks?" 

"Well, short of finding a group of reprobates who need an incompetent bit of muscle for fast coin, or someone to sell me a real nice sword for cheap so I can chop my old boss's head of, I'm not seeing too many other options." Kaistern laughed and downed the whole glass. It tasted like water with the memory of alcohol in it as backwash. "Unless you had advice?"

She laughed. "Well, I can't sell you a sword, but how about I get you something a little stronger? On the house." 

"An angel!" Kaistern proclaimed, throwing his hands into the air. Yeah, she was suspicious. Honestly, the dice players were getting suspicious again too- who hears that there's free drinks getting handed out and doesn't try to involve themself. The whole situation stank, but at this point his only options were to pull out, potentially blowing up any progress Tetheus had made with looking for back entrances or suspicious storerooms, or keep going and take the bait to see what happened when they reeled him in.

The bartender returned with a slightly fizzing drink in a fluted glass. Champagne, perhaps? Kaistern sipped it and was disappointed to find it tasted just as terrible as the first drink, just with a different flavor profile to its awfulness. The bartender watched him drink it eagerly, and Kaistern silently cursed his own inability to back down from a bad situation. 

"Feeling better after that?" she asked gently.

"Well, give it a bit to kick in! I'm still barely feeling rosy from the first few." Kaistern licked his lips, the acrid taste of the drink lingering on his tongue. He was going to be feeling that pretty soon, although he couldn't place the exactly where he recognized the flavor from. "I'm going to go relieve myself, if you don't mind, my dear lady, and when I come back I'll give you the details of how I came to this sorry, sorry state of unemployment and debauchery."

Kaistern stood, and the room seemed to pitch violently as he did. He grabbed the back of his chair to stabilize himself, and it clattered, threatening to topple with him. It didn't, thankfully, and he looked up to see the bartender staring at him, her eyes wide and feverish with excitement. 

"Some drink!" he joked, trying not to let on any concern. 

"Too strong?" she asked, her tone playful as she watched him struggle to keep upright.

"Nothing I can't handle," he replied, more than happy to play the game where they both pretended not to know what the other was up to for a few more bits of banter. The men playing dice were no longer sitting at the table. Kaistern had missed watching their illusion wink out, not that it mattered now. "You sure you don't know where I can find a sword? Heard you had quite a collection here, all the way from Kainaldia." 

"You must have been mistaken. We only sell cheap drinks to drunk fools here." The sockets of her eyes seemed not to fit right anymore. Kaistern would have loved to think it was whatever was in his drink, but the truth was probably worse. "Maybe you should come lie down, Mr. White Dragon Officer." 

Kaistern pitched the chair he was leaning against at the thing's head. If his cover was blown, there was no need to de-escalate politely. It clattered over the counter, losing too much momentum to really hurt the demon across the bar but giving him time enough to stagger back and summon up his sword. It didn't do much good- she was up over the bar and on him before he could fumble it out of its sheath, and whatever poison or drug had been in that drink offbalanced him enough that she barely needed to strike him at all for him to go down, hard. His head bounced off the floorboards when he went down, setting his ears ringing as she grabbed an ankle and stomped on the wrist holding the sword. Kaistern cried out, losing his grip on the blade, and the demon dragged him off before he had time to grab it again. When his head smacked into the corner of the bar, and then once more off the first step down through the cellar's trap door, everything went fuzzy. 

When the world finally stabilized enough that he could think again, Kaistern found himself bound to a pole, hands behind his back and legs together. It would have been almost comical, if it wasn't for how much stronger the stench of rotting meat was down here, as choking as an open grave. The demon was still pulling the ropes tight around his hands, and he tried to twist his wrists the tiniest bit to keep it from getting a good knot. 

"Oh, you're still awake," it cooed, hastily knotting the rope and slipping around to look him in the eyes. 

Kaistern smiled back at it through his haze. "The drinks here weren't _that_ good, lady." 

"I didn't think you'd actually take my bait."

"More like, decided that having you let me in was easier than breaking down the door." Kaistern did his best to keep his voice even and light, despite the stench and the way that every time he spoke his head throbbed and threatened to black him out again. "So are you keeping them down here, your illicitly smuggled goods?" 

The demon laughed, shaking its head. "There are no weapons. I can't believe that bait even worked!" It slithered closer, dragging a hand down Kaistern's face and down to his chest. "I just wanted to see if I could call someone from the Dragon Tribe's attention. And look! It worked!" 

Kaistern furrowed his brow. "What?"

"I'm going to wear you," the demon said, its voice eager and strange now that it wasn't pretending to be human. The hand dragging down his chest shifted slightly, the fingers elongating until the nails were sharp claws like the open blades of scissors that cut through his shirt and left thin lines of red along his skin. Rather than dissolving into its true appearance, the flesh of the demon's human disguise seemed to be coming loose, like a crooked wig or an unhinged mask. Kaistern shuddered as he realized where the scent of rotting meat was coming from. "I didn't think I'd get so lucky as to get the White Dragon Officer himself… but with you as my disguise, I can probably slip right past the Dragon Lord's barrier. How long do you think it will take the others to find out you've been replaced? Will I be able to get all the way to the top and wear your precious Dragon Lord? Wouldn't that be funny! A demon sitting on the throne in Draqueen." 

"Shut up!" Kaistern snarled, bucking against the thing's grip. "Lykouleon's barrier will keep you out, and I-" 

The demon's knife-like claws slipped into his skin so smooth and fast that it barely registered as pain until Kaistern felt his own blood running down his chest, hot in the cold of the basement. He cried out, more in shock than in pain, and the thing laughed. 

"We'll see," it teased, drawing its claws through him. "And if it isn't enough… well. You'll be a good enough consolation prize."

Upstairs there came the sound of heavy bootfalls. The demon turned, scowling at the intrusion, but it didn't have a moment to speak before a sword was through its neck. The head bounced, a look of shock on its face, and the rest of the body crumpled. Kaistern took a gulping breath as he looked at it, then up at Tetheus. "About time!" 

"I wanted to take a full sweep of the building while you had it distracted. I found no weapons, unfortunately." 

"Yeah, apparently that was just bait." Kaistern struggled, slipping a wrist free, and Tetheus came around to help cut him the rest of the way loose.There were no weapons, just a demon trying to lure someone from the Dragon Clan up here to try and steal their body." He put a hand up to his chest, feeling along the gash the demon's claw had left. "I was about to be in deep shit if you hadn't-" 

The body on the floor twitched and convulsed, and from the bloody stump of the neck slithered something boneless and sharp. Kaistern and Tetheus leapt away, and it lunged blindly at them, its razor sharp claws embedding in the wood of the support pole Kaistern had just been bound to. 

"Kaistern," Tetheus called, tossing him his sword. 

Kaistern fumbled to catch it, his hands still clumsy and his mind slow from the head trauma and whatever had been slipped into his drink. The sword clattered to the floor at his feet as the demon pulled itself loose and launched at him once more. Kaistern swore, not so much dodging this time as falling to the side in time to avoid the razor sharp claws. He clumsily grabbed his sword and reached into his pocket feeling a small sachet there. He grinned a little.

"You like drugging people so much?" he asked as he staggered back to his feet, throwing himself at the demon. It shrieked in surprise, driving a claw into his shoulder and tearing. The pain was white-hot this time, and Kaistern leaned into the sensation to keep this thoughts clear as he pulled out the sachet and upended the powder inside into the thing's bloody, shrieking excuse for what he hoped was a mouth. "Why don't you try some of Draqueen's finest, then!" Kaistern kicked it away as it convulsed, frothing and scratching where the powder had touched its skin. Kaistern coughed some himself, fumbling for the vial of the antidote in case he'd breathed some in. "Tetheus, now!"

Tetheus had already started to move, bringing his blade down on the thing and cleaving it in two. Still the thing oozed and shrieked for a few moments more, until either the poison or the bisection caught up with it. 

The two officers looked at each other once it was all over, Kaistern panting and Tetheus barely having broken a sweat. Kaistern swore again, sinking to the floor and letting his dizziness overtake him for a moment. 

"Sorry," he said. "I should have put more effort into verifying the information. I just didn't want to take the chance of it being true, and us losing the trail…" 

"Nothing to apologize for," Tetheus replied, crisp as always. He strode over to Kaistern, pulling off his overcoat and draping it over him. "A shipment of weapons from Kainaldia is dangerous, disreputable news, but the possibility of a flesh-stealing demon sneaking its way into the lord's palace is equally bad. You were right to move on it." 

"Next time be a little faster with the backup," Kaistern said, smacking Tetheus in the leg. "I almost got turned into a costume!" 

Tetheus didn't bother to argue with that, instead just nodding bruskly. "I should have come as soon as I heard the struggle, but I didn't realize quite how quickly the tables had turned against you." 

He bent down and scooped Kaistern up into his arms, mindful of his injuries. Kaistern winced and squeezed his eyes shut against the pain and dizziness anyway. The adrenaline was wearing off, and all he could think about now was how long it would take to sleep this one off. At least he'd have a second set of hands to help patch himself up before they started the journey back to the capitol, and Tetheus was handy with first aid from his time as the head of the guards and armies. The promise of a bedmate and good company didn't hurt either.

"You should kiss it better," Kaistern teased. 

"You smell like a cheap drink, and you've covered yourself in a deadly poison. I'm not doing anything with you until you've cleaned up." 

"Hey!" Kaistern shoved at Tetheus. "Next time, you can play the damsel in distress then! See how you like it when I have to come swooping in to rescue you." 

"I'll be sure to wear my prettiest dress and drink far too much cheap liquor," Tetheus replied, and Kaistern could hear a wry smile in his voice. The sound of that smile made him smile a bit too, despite the wooziness. Kaistern leaned into Tetheus, and when he felt his fellow dragon officer press a smile into the top of his head, he finally felt peaceful enough to almost pass out. Tetheus carried him back out into the bracing cold, the empty tavern behind them for good.


End file.
